Re: Issue in man page puts.3

[Helge Kreutzmann <debian@helgefjell.de>]

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Am Sun, Aug 24, 2025 at 09:17:17PM +0200 schrieb Alejandro Colomar:
> Hi Helge,
> 
> On Sun, Aug 24, 2025 at 02:48:48PM +0000, Helge Kreutzmann wrote:
> > Without further ado, the following was found:
> > 
> > Issue 1:  I<putchar(c)> → B<putchar(>I<c>B<)>
> > Issue 2:  I<putc(c,\\ stdout)> → B<putc(>I<c>B<, >I<stdout>B<)>
> > 
> > "I<putchar(c)> is equivalent to I<putc(c,\\ stdout)>."
> 
> These are correct.  See man-pages(7):
> 
>        Expressions, if not written on a separate indented line,
>        should be specified in italics.

Thanks for the pointer. I now see that sentence, but it doesn't make
sense. I believed the whole idea of this formatting was to give
meaning to the content, e.g. put variables in italices and "fixed"
strings in bold.

Rules like these also make translations harder, because translators
are not programmers, and guides like layed out in the previous
paragraphs really helped a lot doing good translations.

I guess at least for Linux man pages I stop reporting formatting
issues, as the rules are much more complex than I would like them to
be / than I tought.

Sorry thus for the many (incorrect) reports.

Greetings

               Helge

-- 
      Dr. Helge Kreutzmann                     debian@helgefjell.de
           Dipl.-Phys.                   http://www.helgefjell.de/debian.php
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